New players bring new hope for Bathurst area exploration

Residents of this lively seaside community hope that the new blood pouring into northern New Brunswick will have what it takes to find another Brunswick orebody.

With the exception of programs sponsored by Brunswick Mining and Smelting (TSE) and affiliate Noranda Exploration, exploration activity in the Bathurst camp has been flat for the past decade. Those who could appreciate the area’s discovery potential have been turned off by the metallurgical hassles associated with fine-grained mineralization.

“The perception is that Brunswick has all the ground and even if you do find something, it’s going to be a metallurgical nightmare,” said Don Burton, regional geologist for NovaGold Resources (TSE).

Exploration expenditures in the province have hovered at about $15 million in recent years, dropping to $12 million in 1990. Of that, $6-8 million is spent by Brunswick and Noranda.

As The Northern Miner observed on a recent trip to Bathurst, however, new joint ventures for grassroots exploration have revived a sense of cautious optimism among local insiders. Teck (TSE), which recently set up office just outside of town, is earning a 51% interest in Stratabound Minerals’ (ASE) extensive property portfolio and has staked 650 claims for itself. Kennecott Canada has signed a similar agreement with NovaGold.

Together, the option deals call for expenditures of $6 million over the next 3-4 years. Drilling is scheduled to begin this fall.

Other new players in the area include Rio Algom (TSE), BHP-Utah Mines, Phelps Dodge (NYSE) and Falconbridge.

Barry Simmons, Teck’s eastern exploration manager, calls the New Brunswick area one of Teck’s most promising land positions and has set aside $1 million for exploration there this year.

Much of the renewed interest can be attributed to fresh interpretations of the Bathurst camp by Geological Survey of Canada geologist Cees Van Staal. His re-evaluation of stratigraphy and structure helped to pinpoint a unit transition within the felsic volcanic pile as a favorable horizon for volcanogenic ore deposits.

Van Staal’s conclusions led to the discovery of the Northend zone, about 1,000 metres from the No. 12 mine, where Brunswick intersected 8.25-metres grading 14.25% combined lead-zinc in late 1989. Since then, Brunswick has plugged 17 holes into the 1,000-metre deep zone, but has been unable to duplicate its initial results.

Two deep holes are currently in progress on the Northend zone. Both are testing the geometry of the zone to determine whether it is plunging shallowly or steeply. Another hole will test indications of a separate, shallower lens nearby.

“The next two holes are critical,” said Bill Luff, chief geologist at Brunswick. “If we don’t get some good intersections, you’re not looking at enough tons to go out with a drift.”

Mine superintendent Fred Herman said the exploration team would need to find at least three million tons before Brunswick would invest in a 1,000-metre exploration drift, and at least five million before the company would consider mining the new zone.

Another play that has raised some eyebrows is NovaGold’s Sewell Brook project. Lying within the Devonian volcanic and sedimentary rocks that flank the Bathurst camp metavolcanics, Sewell Brook represents the first base metal discovery in new Brunswick in 12 years.

This year, Kennecott has budgeted $450,000 to follow up the Sewell Brook find, which yielded a 10-metre interval grading 20.6% zinc. “What we have to find out is if the high-grade lens we found last year is an isolated lens or if in fact it’s part of a mineral district,” says Burton.

To that end, the NovaGold team has staked up a substantial land area and is completing geological and geophysical (IP) surveys in preparation for drilling. “We’re finding a lot of alteration similar to that associated with the Sewell Brook deposit,” Burton told the Northern Miner.

Back in the Bathurst camp, Teck’s first target will be the southern extension of Stratabound’s Captain North Extension (CNE) deposit where reserves stand at 207,555 tonnes grading 7.38% zinc, 2.76% lead and 91.12 grams silver per tonne.

In addition to the CNE extension, Teck’s exploration team will be focusing on the depth potential of areas that have seen only shallow exploration in the past.